Jean Emrich Landrum

Mary Jean Emrich was born August 4, 1932, the third child of Wallace and Josephine Emrich, joining siblings Ann and Harry, and grew up in Tyronza, Arkansas. Jean finished high school one year early to join her friends at Ouachita Baptist University, receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Speech & Drama in 1953, and completing her Master’s degree from the University of Arkansas in 1956. She began her teaching experience at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1954, three years before the school’s famous crisis over desegregation. Jean was an opponent of segregation and was forever gratified by its demise. Upon discovering her calling was to teach, she began her teaching career at Paragould (AR) High School in 1954. Among her group of friends in town was Joe Landrum, recently graduated from Arkansas State University who was home awaiting orders for his service as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Upon returning to Paragould after two years in France, Joe discovered Jean was still single and moved quickly and they married in 1958, thus beginning a wonderful 44-year marriage. After their fourth son Wally was born, following brothers Rick, Mike, and Andy, Jean answered the call to teach again and began a long career in preschool education as Kindergarten Director at First Baptist Church in Paragould teaching through the birth of long prayed-for daughter Jill in 1969. She later taught at a reform school for teenage boys after the family moved to Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and also in the preschool program at Germantown Baptist Church in Germantown, Tennessee after the family moved to Germantown in 1980. Jean was well revered by her pupils, and they in turn were renowned for being exceptionally well prepared for their next year in school.

In 1954, one of her professors at Ouachita, Arvine Bell, was hired as the first director of Camp Crestridge for Girls, a new summer camp in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. Thrilled to be asked by Ms. Bell to join Crestridge as a charter staffer, she spent the first two summers helping build from scratch a wonderful new camp with long-lasting traditions and lore, and Camp Crestridge is thriving to this day. In 1972 Jean was lured back to Crestridge, where she worked the next eight summers, sending her boys to Crestridge’s brother camp, Camp Ridgecrest for Boys, and keeping Jill with her. Those camps, the mountains, Asheville, and Black Mountain, North Carolina are beloved by Jean’s family as gifts given them by her.

Jean was a loyal friend to so many, from childhood to college to adulthood in three cities, and she remained close to all to the very end. She was gifted and highly regarded as a great cook. Her advice and counsel were widely sought by friends and acquaintances. She was a loving daughter to her parents and a devoted sister to Ann and Harry, a caring wife to Joe, and an eternal mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was most proud of being a faithful servant of God.

Jean was preceded in death by husband Joseph Cashon Landrum; parents Wallace Edward and Josephine Hill Emrich; sister Marjorie Ann Emrich; and brother Harry Hillman Emrich. She is survived by children Joseph Emrich “Rick” Landrum (Audrey) of Nashville, Tennessee; Michael Vincent “Mike” Landrum (Jennifer) of Memphis, Tennessee; Robert Andrew Landrum of Denver, Colorado; Wallace Hill “Wally” Landrum (Betty) of Little Rock, Arkansas.; and Jill Suzanne Landrum Scott (Jay) of Collierville, Tennessee, as well as six grandchildren and one great-grandchild, in whose lives she was a principal force: Mary Aubrey Landrum Stafford (Steven), Judson Collins Scott, Lucy Eudalia Raines Landrum, Ann Wallace Scott, Mary Josephine “Josie” Landrum, Wallace Rogers Landrum, and Steven Randall “Ford” Stafford III.

Jean was very proud to be an Emrich and very proud to be a Landrum. She considered one of her greatest accomplishments that at age 90 she wrote a book about her life titled “My Stories, In My Own Words.” She loved her family.

The family wishes to thank The Village at Germantown, a community in which Jean thrived in her last years, as well as her wonderful caregivers.

Services will be Friday, December 27 at 11:30 AM, preceded by visitation at 10:00 AM, both at Germantown (TN) Baptist Church. The family requests memorials be given to the Church Health Center (Memphis, TN), Germantown Baptist Church, or The Village at Germantown Foundation.